Giuliani Fighting Prostate Cancer; Unsure on Senate

By ELISABETH BUMILLER

Published: April 28, 2000

Correction Appended

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani announced yesterday that he had prostate cancer in an early, treatable form. He said he hoped to continue his campaign for United States Senate, but would not make any definite decisions about the race until he had settled on a course of treatment.

Mr. Giuliani said blood tests he had two weeks ago showed possible evidence of cancer. A biopsy early Wednesday morning at Mount Sinai Medical Center confirmed that diagnosis.

''The good news is that there are lots of possible options,'' Mr. Giuliani, 55, said at a packed and hastily arranged morning news conference in the City Hall Blue Room. The mayor, who seemed relaxed and lighthearted throughout his 20-minute appearance, and even joked with reporters he normally spars with, said his choices included radiation, hormone therapy, surgery or a combination of those options. He added that he and his doctors would make a decision about his treatment within two weeks.

It became known Wednesday night that he had undergone tests for prostate cancer during an unannounced three-hour visit to Mount Sinai Medical Center that morning. But even though word of Mr. Giuliani's condition had begun to spread, his announcement stunned many New Yorkers and set off expressions of sympathy, including one from Hillary Rodham Clinton, but also furious speculation about how the cancer would affect his campaign. Mr. Giuliani did little to dispel the sudden confusion on the political landscape by offering equivocal comments on his desire to run for the Senate.

''I hope that I'd be able to run, but the choice that I'm going to make about treatment is going to be contingent upon the treatment that gives me the best opportunity to have a full and complete cure,'' he said. ''And then after I determine that, then I will figure out, does it make sense this year, or doesn't it, or whatever.'' He added that ''I don't think it's fair to answer questions about the Senate race right now.''

Some Democrats and Republicans suggested that this could be an opportunity, if the mayor wished, to withdraw from the race, particularly since Mr. Giuliani has run a fairly relaxed campaign so far and recently canceled a number of trips upstate, where some polls show him running behind Mrs. Clinton.

''Certainly if he wanted to, this would be an understandable way out,'' said George Arzt, a Democratic political consultant. ''But I strongly believe that he's going to stay in the race.''

Mr. Giuliani's campaign said yesterday that he would go as planned to Saratoga Springs and Buffalo this weekend. One close adviser at City Hall said that Mr. Giuliani's comments were more rooted in his intense superstitions, and that the mayor did not want to tempt fate by proclaiming that he would run for Senate no matter what.

Mrs. Clinton spoke to the mayor by phone yesterday while campaigning in the Finger Lakes district and wished him, according to her press secretary, Howard Wolfson, a ''speedy recovery.'' The mayor, who has been sharply critical of both Mrs. Clinton and the Clinton administration in recent weeks, said, ''Thank you,'' according to Mr. Wolfson. The conversation, Mr. Wolfson said, lasted one minute.

Mrs. Clinton made this statement earlier in the day: ''Like all New Yorkers, my prayers and best wishes are with the mayor for a full and speedy recovery and I hope that everyone joins me in wishing him well.''

Mr. Giuliani's wife, Donna Hanover, an actress and television personality who maintains a separate public life from the mayor, issued this written statement yesterday: ''I'm very optimistic about Rudy's recovery. We have discussed this and I will be very supportive of him in dealing with the choices he has to make. It would be appreciated if he is given the maximum opportunity possible to deal with this privately.''

Mr. Giuliani, who announced that he was feeling ''great'' and that he had had his ''normal four hours' sleep'' the night before, said that he had told his family about the prostate cancer and explained it to them ''pretty much the same way I just did now.''

Mr. Giuliani said he first learned that he had cancer from his doctor, Alexander M. Kirschenbaum of Mount Sinai Medical Center, when Dr. Kirschenbaum called the mayor on Wednesday afternoon and told him that his biopsy results were positive. ''I keep getting positive and negative mixed up,'' Mr. Giuliani said. ''I kind of think of negative as bad and positive as good. So when he told me it was positive, it took me a second to figure out, 'Oh, gee, that's not so good.' ''

But Mr. Giuliani also said that ''I kind of expected it, you know?'' Asked about his emotional health at the moment, he termed it simply ''O.K.''

Mr. Giuliani was more expansive when he was asked about his father, Harold, who died of prostate cancer at age 73. ''It brings up very painful memories,'' he said. ''And, you know, I miss my father every day of my life. And he's a -- he's a very, very important reason for why I'm standing here as the mayor of New York City.'' His father's illness, the mayor added, was the reason he made sure to have regular blood tests to screen for elevated levels of prostate-specific antigens, or P.S.A. Mr. Giuliani said his last P.S.A. test was ''a couple of years ago.''

It was Mr. Giuliani's most recent P.S.A. tests, done twice in the last two weeks, that turned up possible evidence of cancer. Then a biopsy of Mr. Giuliani's prostate on Wednesday, the mayor said, ''revealed that several of the samples -- thank goodness not all and not most -- had indications of cancer.''

Mr. Giuliani returned to Mount Sinai yesterday afternoon for several more tests and to consult with his doctor. But he kept an appointment in College Point, Queens, last night for one of his regular monthly Town Hall meetings. Noting all the television cameras that greeted him in College Point, Mr. Giuliani told the audience, ''They're really here to see if I can still walk.''

Mr. Giuliani had told very few people about his blood tests over the last two weeks, and informed a small circle of advisers about his diagnosis only on Wednesday afternoon. Most of his aides found out about his illness when he made an announcement at his 8 a.m. staff meeting yesterday, which several people described as upbeat and similar to his press conference two hours later.

Mr. Giuliani met briefly with Gov. George E. Pataki in Manhattan after his news conference, and also took a call from Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, the presumptive Republican nominee for president. Mr. Bush later described Mr. Giuliani as ''as feisty as ever.''

Asked if the diagnosis had made an impact on his values in life, Mr. Giuliani replied, ''Absolutely, sure.'' He added that ''just the contemplation of it for the last two weeks makes you think about what's important in life and what are the most important things. But you know, you should be thinking about that anyway. It just reminds you to think about what you should be thinking about. But do I have an answer yet? No, I don't have an answer yet.''

Mr. Giuliani then laughed, as he did several times during his news conference. He was also unusually warm to a reporter who frequently incenses him, Rafael Martinez Alequin, the publisher of The Free Press, a sporadically printed tabloid that is harshly critical of the mayor. When Mr. Alequin, who has had gastric cancer, told the mayor at the briefing that ''there is life after cancer,'' Mr. Giuliani replied, ''I know that. And thank you. And thank you for saying that.''

Throughout the day, other regular mayoral critics showered City Hall with calls, messages and news releases expressing sympathy for Mr. Giuliani.

Edward I. Koch, the former mayor, a vociferous critic of Mr. Giuliani, left a phone message and sent a note, and said afterward, ''When illness sets in in a situation, you forget about politics.''

Alan G. Hevesi, the city comptroller, who has fought bitterly with the mayor over welfare-to-work contracts, and who has had successful surgery for prostate cancer himself, said yesterday that he had put in a call to Mr. Giuliani and that the mayor was probably experiencing ''anxiety'' and ''a touch of trepidation that he has to go through some treatment that is not entirely pleasant but not awful either.''

Mr. Hevesi added that ''he is also one of the strongest people in America and he'll be fine.''

Bob Dole, the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, who had prostate cancer, issued a statement praising Mr. Giuliani for ''going public'' because ''it will benefit potentially hundreds of thousands of people.''

Photo: Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani took questions at a Town Hall meeting last night in College Point, Queens. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)(pg. B6)

Correction: May 1, 2000, Monday A front-page picture caption on Friday about Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's announcement that he has prostate cancer carried an incorrect credit. It was by Chester Higgins Jr. of The New York Times. Correction: May 2, 2000, Tuesday An article on Friday about Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's announcement that he has prostate cancer referred incorrectly to his standing in upstate New York opinion polls. A recent New York Times/CBS News poll found Mr. Giuliani, among upstate voters, even with Hillary Rodham Clinton, his opponent for the United States Senate. In other polls, the mayor is running ahead of Mrs. Clinton upstate. He is not running behind her there.